Hantavirus infections are diseases caused by hantaviruses (officially orthohantaviruses). There are different types of hantaviruses. Mice and rats in particular can carry these viruses. They can transmit the virus to humans. In the Netherlands, this is very rare.

Botulism is a serious infectious disease caused by toxins produced by the bacteria Clostridium botulinum. Botulism is very rare in the Netherlands.

A tick bite can make you ill. Check yourself and others for ticks after visiting green areas. If you have been bitten by a tick, it is important to remove it quickly. These pages offer information on ticks, tick bites, and the diseases that ticks can spread.

Mosquitoes have an annoying habit of buzzing around your head, or alternatively, of biting you, which generally results in unpleasant bites. Read on to find out what you can do to stop mosquitoes from laying eggs, thus minimising the number of mosquitoes in and around your home. 

There are many different types of viruses, including a family known as the ‘coronaviruses’. Examples of the coronaviruses are Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV1) and SARS-CoV-2. Coronaviruses mostly affect the respiratory system.

SARS-CoV-2 is the coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19. The symptoms often resemble the common cold at first. Some people do not become ill at all, or are only mildly ill from the virus. Others may become seriously ill and sometimes even die from the disease. Some people keep having symptoms for a long time after having COVID-19. If their symptoms persist for longer than 3 months, it is called post-COVID.

Diseases that are naturally transmitted from animals to humans are called zoonoses. Outbreaks or events involving new or re-emerging zoonoses also occur in the Netherlands. New zoonotic diseases will continue to emerge. An appropriate response to emerging zoonoses requires close collaboration between medical and veterinary professionals. In this topic, we elaborate on the One Health approach in the Netherlands and our national and international activities on signalling, assessing and controlling zoonoses.

MERS is a disease caused by MERS-CoV, a coronavirus. People can become very ill from this disease. MERS stands for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. The disease only occurs in the Middle East (especially Saudi Arabia) and is rare even in that region.